LUKE XXII. Ver. 32. ---And when thou art Converted, T HESE Words were spoken by our Bleffed Saviour to St. Peter, immediately after he had given him and the rest of the Apoftles Warning of the great Danger they were all in at this Time from their fpiritual Enemy the Devil. And were directed to him more particularly, not (as fome would perfwade us) on account of any Supremacy he had over his Brethren, A 2 but 3 but because of the much greater Danger he was in than any of the reft, of doing a very wicked and ungrateful thing to his Lord and Mafter; no less than the denying him openly to be fo; or that he had ever been with him, or knew any thing of him: For thus the following part of St. Peter's Hiftory in this Chapter explains what our Bleffed Saviour here meant, (with a particular Regard to him) in those remarkable Words immediately before the Text Ver. 31, Simon, Simon, Satan hath defired to have 32. you, (it is in the Original us, all of you) that he may fift you as Wheat: But I have prayed for you, (you Peter in particular, because yours is the most extraordinary Cafe) that your Faith fail not. Upon which Paffage, I fhall only farther obferve at prefent, that what we here tranflate defired, is a much ftronger Expreffion in the Original, and implies rather a Demand of Juftice than a Request of Favour; and fo it has all along been interpreted by Chriftian Writers: Tertulli an, Cy Writers: But yet in neither Sense are we to fuppofe, that any fuch Thing prian,&c. was actually done by Satan to our blessed Saviour; but this is only a figurative Way of Speech, to fignifie the Restraint that Evil Spirit is always 1 under, from the Power and Goodness of God, who will not fuffer him at all Times to do that Mischief in the World, he is ever ready and inclined to do or to represent in General, his Eagerness of Spirit, and the Pleasure the great Tempter of Mankind takes, in deluding unguarded Souls, and leading them captive at his Will; and to intimate to us in particular, that the prevailing by his Craft and fubtle Înfinuations over fuch eminent Persons as our Saviour's Apostles, and St. Peter in particular, would be a Matter of exceeding Joy and Triumph to him; who as he probably enough knew, or at leaft feared, that our Saviour's Coming into the World was intended to drive him out of it; that the Kingdom of the Meffiah was to be erected on the Ruines of the Kingdom of the Prince of the Air; and as the one increafed, the other was to decrease; fo he was now ufing all his Stratagems and cunning Devices, to defeat this glorious Defign for the Good of Mankind, and to preferve ftill his own ufurped Empire in the World, over the Souls and Bodies of Men. And as it is more than probable, that he had this Project in his View when he tempted our Bleffed Saviour himself to fin against God, by diftrufting his Care and Providence over him, and by falling down and worshipping him; fo he continued ftill, notwithstanding his Defeat there, to make the fame Efforts upon his more immediate Difciples, efpecially upon one of his most zealous Apoftles, as having yet Hopes that he might thereby put a Check at leaft, to this growing Empire of the Meffiah, which threatned fuch total Ruin and Destruction to his own; and there. fore he watched an Opportunity (when this great Apoftle was moft likely to be 16. be off his Guard, and upon many Accounts leaft able to refift) to tempt him to the Commiffion of a Sin, which, if not speedily repented of and forgiven, would have rendred him at leaft unable to go on with the great Work of Publishing and Propagating the Gospel of Chrift, that Power of God Rom. i. unto Salvation: And his unhappy Denial of his Mafter (if finally perfifted in) might, in the Event, have been a fatal Difcouragement to any other Persons to undertake the fame Bufinefs. All which Mischief our Blessed Saviour in his infinite Knowledge forefeeing, did, by an exceeding Act of Goodness and Wisdom, kindly interpofe and prevent. And tho' Satan had thus defired, or demanded of our Saviour, to have St. Peter in particular left to him, that he might fift him as Wheat; and tho' he permitted him to vex and tofs him like Wheat in a Sieve, by a ftrong and wicked Temptation; yet he would not let him have fuch full Power over him, as that he fhould execute his Defign upon A 4 |